UC Berkeley - Class of 2022 Applicants Thread

It doesn’t say “now that you are admitted”, it says “if you are admitted”…Huge difference!

maybe hers is different because she was already actually admitted…

My D got the email. She applied to undeclared major

@tarekb22 – My son is a soph at Cal now. I recall decisions released a couple days early. The decision may be released on your portal a couple hours BEFORE you receive an email. Also realize that not everyone’s portal updates at the same time, so don’t panic if other people have their decisions and you haven’t gotten yours yet. It seemed to take 2 hours before everyone got their portal updated.

@ugradbiz DD applied regular. OOS. Received an offer of admission Feb 13 (the day before her bday!). Also accepted to Berkeley/Sciences Po.

Regarding the pathway promo emails - My son (now soph at Cal) got a couple emails in mid Feb/March regarding FPF and Global Edge pathways. When decisions released, my son was offered waitlist. When he got admitted from the waitlist he was offered these pathways. So, PERHAPS, those who got the email are being prepped for being offered these pathways. Just speculating!

@shapeofyou RE your post #570. I assume someone has already answered but in case they have not, there is not a conflict with applying EA to one and ED to another. ED is the binding one-you may only apply to one ED. Someone above wrote you could apply ED and more ED but they meant to write EA, I’m pretty sure.

@Mordowin @BrKmNk @happywaffles

FPF is offered to LS students only. Global Edge is offered to LS/CNR only. Sheds some light on the pathways emails many have received recently. Got this info from Cal’s webpage - http://admissions.berkeley.edu/first-year-pathways

@kornido …thanks for sharing. Which pathway did your son choose & how did he like it? Also how long did he have to wait on waitlist?

@kornido so we should assume that if we get these emails it means we are waitlisted

@Tangledfan it’s best not to assume anything and stress yourself out more, it could just mean nothing.

I’m assuming these emails are mass mailings. I wouldn’t read a thing into them.

@knowledgeispower18 My son chose FPF. GlobalEdge is attractive but it was costly and you don’t get a summer break (you start on campus during summer then spend Fall in Europe). Also with GE, you are NOT guaranteed school housing. He very much enjoyed FPF - in a smaller environment, it was easier to make friends and get to know the profs. I’m an alumna and got in the same way (runs in the family, I guess!). He had 2 classes at the FPF campus just 2 short blocks from Cal, and the other 2 were ON CAMPUS! You get same student privileges as everyone else. FPF, at that time, costed $2K more for the 1 semester.

@tangledfan Maybe. Anecdotal evidence - he got the pathway promo emails, he got waitlisted…and ultimately got in. (Know that even traditional admits may be offered alternate pathways, not just waitlist admits.) If you get waitlist and really want to get in, do the optional essay. I believe it’s what got my son in. I just looked at his old emails, he got admitted off the waitlist on 5/2, the day after SIR Day. If it’s the same as before, you are given 5 days from the email to SIR. People are admitted off the waitlist in waves - 1 wave per week. He got admitted in Wave 1, and I think there were 3 or 4 waves.

You can always opt not to do FPF or GE and just start in Spring, but you aren’t guaranteed school housing.

Thank you @kornido ! Helpful info.

@kornido Are you saying that if a student is offered admission off the waitlist they aren’t able to do the “Traditional Pathway”?

@wrenwu More likely than not, those admitted via waitlist will ONLY be offered FPF, GE or start in Spring. Waitlist admits are students Berkeley wants but does not have enough room on campus for them in the Fall. That’s why these alternate pathways are offered - students are at the FPF campus (2 campuses - 2 blocks from campus and another in downtown San Francisco) or in Europe for the Fall. Cal can take more students come Spring after some people will graduate.
Of course, if after 5/1 when all traditional admits have SIR’d and there’s still room on campus, some waitlist admits may just get a traditional admit.

@kornido Thanks! I hope my daughter is not waitlisted, but I’m glad to have this information if she is!

Does UCB request recommendation letters and if you did not hear from them at all does it mean you are on their reject list?

@chessmaster123 If you are in the reject list, Cal wouldn’t ask anything additional of you. (Same if they already gave you a “yes”.)

If you are asked to submit an optl recommendation letter, it means you are a Maybe, and Cal is hoping to know a bit more about you to tip you into the “yes” pile. If you are asked, you should definitely submit that letter and select your writer carefully — who knows you well and can say something positive/unique about you that will make Cal confident you would be a good fit for their school?

@kornido where did you get this information about the letters of rec? when a berkeley rep visited my high school, he only said that the letters didn’t mean anything about your admissions status, and it was just part of a new thing berkeley was trying for admissions.